Am I Freaking it Over Nothing?

Hello! So, I’ve been curious about this for quite some time now.

I’ve never enjoyed the taste of alcohol. Not even a little bit. Even if there’s only the tiniest, slightest bit of alcohol in a drink mixed specifically to mask its flavor, I can still taste it. There is a threshold of additional flavors past which I’m willing/able to enjoy a drink, but I still heavily dislike the flavor of alcohol and in pretty much every instance I would rather have a non-alcoholic version of whatever I’m drinking. My ability to smell alcohol is the same.

My question is this: Is a sensitivity to alcohol to this degree normal? It tastes and smells like hand sanitizer. Even in lower-mid ABV drinks like beers and wines or mixed drinks like Smirnoff Ice and Mike’s, it’s practically all I can taste. I make mead because I am into the process of fermentation and what you can create with it, but I can’t even drink my own meads because, even after aging, they still smell and taste so strongly of alcohol. It’s gotten to a point where I’ve been consulting fermentation forums and scouring posts from years ago trying to find any hint of someone who’s had this experience. I open a carboy and I sniff and all I can smell is a sharp, stinging waft. I open a bottle of cherry melomel I finished 8 months ago that has been aging since and the intensity is nearly the same as a batch fresh out of fermentation.

The reason I ask this is because, when I talk to other people about it, they either partially agree with me, or they don’t know what the fuck I’m talking about. Plenty of people smell hand sanitizer with alcohol. That’s what hand sanitizer is. It only makes sense that it smells like that. But then when I talk about the taste and burn, especially with the lower-percentage drinks, they lose me.

I made a spiced apple cider mead about a year ago that I’ve since given away, and anytime I had somebody taste it they would say, “mmm, this is really good! I can barely taste the alcohol!” I had over twenty different people try it since it was one of my first brews and I wanted to get a sense of what was good or not. Everybody agreed that the taste of alcohol was barely present despite its 12.5% ABV. But, when I tasted it, I was hit with a wall of burn. Hand sanitizer with a tiny hint of cloves and apple. No matter what, the alcohol always takes the front seat in my palette.

Is this something that happens commonly? Do any of you guys know anyone who perceives alcohol like this? It’s really bugging me because I love fermentation, but I worry I won’t be able to make drinks that others like if I can’t tell whether they’re good or not.

Thank you!